Consumer Behavior in Advertising

Understanding the Misconceptions of Advertising

Marketers appeal to consumer’s emotions to give the consumer a connection to the product. It can be anywhere from a good emotion, such as drinking a certain soda will make you be the life of the party, to a fear emotion of needing to purchase new tires before winter begins. Marketers like to appeal to consumer emotions because it gives the consumers a sense of entitlement to the product.

The Truth

Sometimes the underlying message about the product is a little unrealistic. People believe that making the purchase of that item will make their lives 10 times better. The truth is, marketers appeal to consumers in this way to make consumers buy their product.

For consumers not to be fooled, here is the top blog that I recommend to read about the common misconceptions about marketers and advertising.

7 Life Misconceptions Portrayed in Popular Television Advertisements

Joshua Becker in this blog describes how television commercials relate to consumers with the underlying message. The misconceptions Becker talks about are:

1.Happiness being for sale.

Consumers are trying to sell an emotion with the product.

2.Self-confidence can be quickly found in the right purchase.

By purchasing the product, consumers will automatically feel better about themselves.

3.Youth culture represents the pinnacle of life’s seasons.

Advertisers want to show that purchasing the product will bring out the consumers younger years.

4.Sex is the ultimate goal.

Sex doesn’t sell.

5.To watch television is to experience life.

Enticing consumers to watch a certain television series, so they don’t miss out.

6.Adventure/ Respect is discovered in the right automobile.

Buying that certain automobile will not necessarily bring joy and live life on the edge, especially with the car payments.

7.A website will solve your problems.

They will begin to help you on your problems, but the consumer will still have to put in effort.

These 7 misconceptions may be the first step to solving an issue that a consumer has, but it is not the definite answer. Marketers provide people with opportunity with their advertisements. What a marketer advertises, may not be the best option for the consumer. That is why marketers must develop a target market in order to have the most success for their product.

What I have found with the misconceptions that Becker pointed out are all true. Consumers sometimes don’t fully grasp the concept about what the marketer is trying to get them to do. Consumers bounded rationality is too small to understand the in depth meaning the marketer is trying to portray. That is why to advertise to consumers, the marketer must know their target market. It will be easier to avoid misconceptions and confusion about the product by making the consumer do an action instead of telling them what the product may do for them in the short scheme of things.